The east coast of Vancouver Island took the brunt of an early November windstorm while west coasters gawked at 20-foot waves crashing off Ucluelet’s Wild Pacific Trail.
BC Hydro says the fury of the wind peaked at around 1 a.m. on Nov. 8, knocking out power to about 50,000 customers on Vancouver Island.
“Mother Nature certainly let us know who is in charge,” said Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro manager of community relations for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
“Cowichan Valley got hammered. It was chaos. It was like a burst of some kind, just trees coming down, branches flying. It was almost like a meteor that struck through the area,” he said.
As of Monday morning, Nov. 9, Olynyk said BC Hydro was down to less than 1,000 customers without power. About 700 of those clients were in Bamfield, the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla, Nitinaht Lake and Zeballos.
Olynyck said power should be restored to the Bamfield and Nitinaht Lake area by the end of the day on Nov. 9, but Zeballos is of particular concern.
“Unfortunately, with Zeballos, if we can’t get a helicopter up in the air and do a final patrol, they may not see their power restored until Wednesday or Thursday even. If the helicopter can’t get up today because the weather, and the next system is coming, it will be postponed,” said Olynyck.
Leading up to the windstorm, heavy rain flooded roads in Zeballos and forced evacuations.
Up the west coast in the Hesquiaht First Nations village of Hot Springs Cove, the storm caused the dock ramp to fall off. Residents were able to temporarily reconnect it and they have a crew coming in to examine it. About 100 Hot Springs Cove residents rely on the dock for transportation.
Ahousaht’s emergency manager Curtis Dick had nothing to report after the weekend’s storm event. Ahousaht’s main village of Maaqtuusiis is located on Flores Island, about a 30-to-40-minute boat ride from Tofino. They did not lose power.
“Just another storm here,” said Dick.
BC Hydro continues to monitor additional weather systems expected to move through the province over the coming days. Storm rooms remain active, and crews, contractors and equipment are being repositioned as restoration work is completed so they can support the areas with the greatest remaining need and respond quickly to any new outages, according to BC Hydro.
Olynyk says customers can get the latest information on outages and estimated restoration times through the BC Hydro mobile app or at bchydro.com/outages.